


Underhill

by Tallihensia



Category: Smallville
Genre: Angst, Drama, Future Fic, M/M, Not a death fic, Reconciliation, Slight Silliness, crossing of tropes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 15:54:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5749147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tallihensia/pseuds/Tallihensia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After many years of Superman and Luthor fighting, the end comes not as they would have expected.  While Lex is dying, they reconcile.  But life has one more surprise left for both of them... and the future is yet to come.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Underhill

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mysticmcknight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysticmcknight/gifts).



> **Disclaimer:** Only mine in my dreams. This story was written for free entertainment purposes only and may not be reproduced for profit or altered without permission.
> 
>  **Warnings:** not actually a death fic, though it might seem like one at the start – don’t worry, everything works out in the end
> 
>  **Spoilers:** general first few seasons
> 
>  **Notes:** Clexmas Gift fic for MysticMcKnight. Prompts were _Super powers!Lex. Lex discovers he’s not fully human from his mother’s side. Lex decides to quit being a Luthor so he can have Clark._ I used one of these as the main base and slightly snuck in the other two on the side. ^^ 
> 
> Originally posted Jan 10 anonymously at [Clexmas](http://clexmas.livejournal.com/116181.html).

# Underhill

“Superman.” The voice was smooth, oily, slippery and insincere.

Clark hated that voice. It only resembled his friend’s voice in some distant dream. Or nightmare. “Luthor,” he replied tightly, turning in a slow circle. He wouldn’t call this person Lex. Not his Lex.

They fought. Well, Superman fought some of Luthor’s powered-up henchmen and gadgets. Luthor himself, as usual, was in the midst of action, but not directly trading blows with Superman. His arch-nemesis was, after all, a genius.

This encounter finished up the usual way – Superman winning over the henchmen and gadgets, and Luthor disappearing before he could be connected with the crime. After dropping the henchmen off with the police, Superman took some of the gadgets back to the Fortress with him, and put them in his museum. He walked to another part of the museum and stared at the replica of some of the old cave drawings from Smallville, the one of the serpents intertwined, fighting, always at odds. He watched it for awhile while it never changed. Then he left.

\--

It was some months before Clark heard from Luthor again, and this time it wasn’t a job for Superman. The news conference took everybody by surprise. Clark stood with the rest of the reporters in shock while Luthor announced he was stepping down as head of Luthor Industries. There was dead silence for a few moments, then a swell of noise raising to a roar as the reporters all shouted out questions. Luthor stood at the podium with a sarcastic bend of his lips, not to be confused with a smile. He let the roar continue on for a little while, then he turned and walked out. A media relations person took his place.

Nothing more was learned at the press conference, and Clark went back to his contacts to try and learn what was behind the move. It took him some time and digging to look towards and then pull up the hospital records.

\--

“What do you want?” Luthor stood on his balcony with a glass in his hand and stared over the city. He didn’t look at the colorful figure hovering in the sky on the other side of the balcony.

“Should you be drinking?” Superman asked with worry. Luthor was pale and wan, his once strong body wasted into thinness.

Luthor snorted. “Why not? It’s not like anything will make any difference.” His hand trembled as he raised the glass and drank. 

“They said cancer,” Superman tried hard not to stare, but he couldn’t help it. “Your hand?”

Luthor blinked and glanced at his unadorned hand. Then he laughed. “The ring? I didn’t feel like having it resized. Though I admit it would have prevented this meeting.” He shook his head. “You would like that, wouldn’t you? If it was through my own doing, and your piece of the homeland that brought me down. No. I’m afraid not.”

He sipped his drink again. “It’s genetic. My mother died of the exact same cancer. It’s rare enough that there are only a few documented cases and no cure. Always hereditary. I’ve thrown enough money at it – if there was a cure, it would have been found by now. No, nothing to do with you.”

Superman looked away.

After a few minutes, he hesitantly said, “I could—”

Luthor cut him off with a snort. “You are a fool. As naïve as you always were.” He looked at Superman for the first time since the conversation started. There was the usual hate in his eyes, but there was something else there. Superman was reluctant to call it regret. It only lasted a moment before Lex turned and walked inside the penthouse, closing the balcony doors behind him.

Superman watched the door for some time but Lex didn’t come out again.

\--

Clark did ask the Fortress, but as always, human conditions confounded the alien AI. Give it a physics or chemistry problem, it would be able to find a solution within a few nanoseconds. Give it earthly biology and it was stumped.

He checked with the human doctors, but what Luthor’s money couldn’t do, neither could Superman’s request.

His friends asked him what he was doing, that he should be grateful that Luthor was dying. Superman knew that... but Clark still had to try. He’d never been able to explain it to his friends, or even to himself. 

\--

Luthor disappeared from Metropolis and reemerged in Smallville, with staff taking the dust covers off the furniture in the castle. 

Clark took a leave of absence from the Daily Planet and went to spend some time on the farm. 

On the third day, Lex left the castle on his own. Clark flew over and watched as the mostly automated sports car drove to the caves. Upon arrival, the car refolded part of itself into a mechanized wheelchair that walked on stilted legs instead of wheels. 

Clark blinked a little, then flew down beside Lex. “What do you want with the caves?”

Lex looked Clark over, in a manner reminiscent of old, raising an eyebrow. “No uniform?”

Clark tilted his hand in an ambiguous gesture, even as he shrugged. He dismissed Lex’s question and went back to his own. “What are you doing here?”

“There is more to the cavern system than just your part,” Lex remarked, breaking into coughs at the end of the sentence. He brought a handkerchief to his lips, then lowered it and touched the controls on his motor chair. The thing walked with Lex inside it into the caves. 

With a sigh, Clark followed.

The first part of the trip through the caves was the standard one. The large cavern where the teens had held their party so long ago, the walls still seeping alien parasites that made them reckless to the point of death. It was Lex’s people who found a cure for it at that time, and got rid of the parasites as well. Back then, Clark hated his people. A lot more than he did Lex, that was for sure. Since then, Lex had racked up his own share of immoralities. Clark never lost sight of his own people’s, though, no matter what anybody told him about how wonderful they were.

They walked through the corridors hewed in stone and dirt, with alien writing mixed equally with Native American. Some people obviously liked Kyrptonians. Yet that which had given Clark such knowledge had killed others, without discernment or concern.

At the branch to the key room, Clark automatically turned. Lex kept going straight. After a moment, Clark came out and caught up.

“You didn’t believe me,” Lex snorted, the walker never pausing. “You and your section of the caves are not the star of everything, and not my only concern.”

“Well, you have to admit, Lex, you were rather obsessed with it.”

“So now I’m Lex? What happened to Luthor?”

Clark shrugged, embarrassed.

Lex shook his head. “You—” Whatever he was going to say dissolved in a fit of coughing. The walker kept moving, undeterred by Lex’s temporary indisposition. When he finally stopped, Lex stayed silent, not going back to whatever he’d been about to say.

They passed through several more tunnels, the corridors getting rougher and less obviously travelled. Some of them barely were wide enough for Lex’s walker to get through. Clark wondered if he’d designed it for those specifications. He also wondered about the rest of the caverns – he’d never seen them before. He’d always gone as far as the key room, and there he’d stayed. When his people and their left-over programming had called to him, and made him come, it was always to the key room, and nowhere else.

After some time of walking, they got to a dead end. Lex stopped the walker and carefully got out of it, using a wooden cane to lean on.

“As long as you’re here, you can make yourself useful,” Lex said, gesturing to the back of the walker. “Get the supplies.”

Supplies? Clark went back and looked and found supplies. A backpack with books and water and a bit of food. There wasn’t a lot... but apparently Lex had planned to carry it himself and he wasn’t that strong anymore. If Lex needed anything else, Clark could always go back and get it for him. He picked up what was there and returned to Lex.

Lex tapped on the wall of the corridor leading to the dead end. The wall slid down in a cascade of pebbles and rocks, Lex sidestepping them as they fell.

The tunnel reveled there was very narrow and short and dark. They would have to duck low as they went. Clark eyed it dubiously. “We’ll need a flashlight.”

Lex pulled a tube from the pack that Clark held and shook it. A pale light fluorescenced from it. “No flashlights. Nothing with a lot of refined metals. If you have any on you, leave it out here.”

Clark raised his eyebrows.

Lex shrugged. “I said you were not the only mystery. The ones out here, your alien mysteries... they are easily found, easily researched with anthropologists and biologists and geologists and other scientists. They were accessible and they also had you, which made them a higher priority. 

“The deeper caves... they were quieter and not so many clues and more reflextive and something that is more felt and understood in subtle ways. I never have figured out much about them. However, I do know they do not welcome your alien technology, though they seem to be okay with that of Earth, as long as it’s not refined metals.” He looked at Clark curiously. “I wonder what they will think of an actual alien?”

That made Clark rather uneasy, but he wasn’t going to let Lex in there by himself. He took out his house keys and set them next to the walker. “What about zippers?”

The corner of Lex’s mouth curved up. “Should be okay, but let me know if you have any problems. I’ll add it to the list.”

Clark glowered at him.

Limping and relying heavily on his wooden cane, Lex walked into the tunnel.

Hesitating for a moment and wondering if it was a trap, Clark finally decided if he’d come this far, he might as well go the rest of the way. It wasn’t like Lex had planned on him following. Or had he? Even after all these years, Clark couldn’t figure out how Lex’s brain worked.

With a sigh, Clark followed.

The progress was much, much slower than they progressed through the rest of the cave systems. With Lex’s pace hobbled and many frequent rests. Clark didn’t dare suggest helping. The one time he ventured closer to perhaps ask, the look Lex gave him made Clark recoil as if Lex was still wearing the kryptonite ring. 

The slow pace made Clark look around more than he normally would. They progressed from tunnel to cavern, to another cavern. Nothing here was touched by wall paintings or alien glyphs or indeed, any touch of hands at all it seemed. They were caverns such as one might see spelunking in an unexplored zone. Stalagties and stalagmites and crystals growing out of walls and floors and ceilings. The crystals were really spectacular in some places, even as palely lit as they were by the glow stick. Clears and purples and light greens and yellows all mixed in as they wandered by. Clark wondered how nice they’d be under full light, like the tourist caverns did. 

“I’m surprised you haven’t exploited these,” Clark murmured, keeping his voice down just from the whole feel of the caverns.

Lex humffed. “Quartz and Amethysts are a dime a dozen in rock shops – sometimes literally. I don’t need to break them up for money. These are much better here as they are.”

As much as Clark hated Lex the businessman, he had to admit that Luthor rarely tore things down just for the sake of tearing it down. Usually he had ulterior motives when he did things like that.

“Are we near?” Clark was worried about Lex. He didn’t look that good.

“Fairly.” Lex stopped and put his hands on his cane and tilted his head like he was listening for something. “Can you hear it?”

Super-hearing didn’t hear a thing out of the ordinary. “The bats?”

Lex shook his head, and instead of clarifying, just moved on.

Another few bends and they came into another large cavern. This one had an underwater lake along one edge along with the now familiar crystals and pillars. Lex walked to a large rock that was shaped somewhat like a chair in that it had a 110 degree bend in the middle with a flat section about knee height. With a sigh of relief that he would probably deny if asked, Lex sat down and relaxed.

Clark hovered for a moment, wondering if this was just a break.

“We’re here,” Lex said without opening his eyes. “You can give me some of that water and put the pack down.”

Lex really sucked at asking people for things. Though Clark figured in some ways they’d come to it through the years. He popped the plastic top off a bottle and handed it to Lex. Then he explored this cavern. 

It was a cavern. Very pretty, very nice. But he’d seen larger and more spectacular ones. He had no clue at all what was so special about this one. As Lex had said earlier, there was no writing on the walls, no alien glyphs, no keyholes or anything. One of the walls was flatter and shinier than normal, but the water running down it explained that part, and wasn’t out of the ordinary.

Clark came back to Lex and sat down. He didn’t bother asking. Either Lex would tell, or he wouldn’t, but there was no rushing him either way.

They stayed there for a long time.

Eventually, Clark looked at his watch and broke the silence that had held for hours. “It’s getting late. When did you want to go back?”

Lex turned to him, surprise written across his face and body language. “Go back?” Just as quickly, he lost the surprise and his attitude turned condescending – the elder talking to the teenager about the ways of the world. “Oh Clark,” Lex said, shaking his head. “Your naivety was refreshing and expected as a teenager. As an adult, it grates.”

Clark bit his lip, hard, forcing back everything he might have said.

Lex’s voice turned softer. “I’m not going back, Clark. I came here to die.”

It shouldn’t have been unexpected, but it was.

“Ah, Clark...” Lex trailed off, shaking his head. 

Drawing his knees up to his chest, Clark hunched over them. He hadn’t forgotten. Not really. But while they were there, just sitting there together... without Lex trying to kill him... It was hard not to slip back into old feelings. Two years of friendship, three or four if you counted the rocky parts, then so many, many more of hatred and enemies. Yet it was the friendship Clark kept going back to and hoping for, even now.

“When I first learned about the cancer, and found there was no cure, I thought about going out in a blaze that would take the world down with me,” Lex spoke matter of factly, giving Clark chills down his spine. It wasn’t a joke. Luthor would have done it, if he’d decided to. “Or at least a large portion of it. Metropolis. Or even just you. You and me, together through eternity... that’s what I always wanted, and it would be appropriate and fitting. What better could I have, then to take Superman with me?”

Almost, Clark thought about scanning the cave again with all his senses, or speeding out of there, away from the trap. However, though logic and years of fighting with Luthor told him he should, Clark didn’t. It just didn’t feel like it. None of this felt like it. He could be wrong, and this might be a fatal mistake... but he would stay.

Lex watched him, his lips twitching as Clark didn’t move. “Brave soul.”

“Lex...” Clark tiredly started, but then he trailed off as Lex had earlier. 

“I’m not going to,” Lex said, and looked at the far wall of the cavern again. “You know how when a person is dying, they often get a fever, their body fighting off death with everything in them? And then at the end, the fever goes away. Not because the person is getting better, but because there is nothing left to fight death with.

“I feel like that.” Lex stretched a little, standing from his rock chair. “Like I’ve been burning with a fever for years and years, and now it’s gone. Things are clearer, and I look back... and wonder what fever dreams I had.”

Clark looked up, his heart in his throat keeping him from speaking.

“You should have killed me long ago,” Lex spoke softly.

Clark shook his head. “No.”

A little grin played around the corners of Lex’s mouth. “I imagine you’ve had many people tell you that over the years.”

“Yes, and the answer always has been, and always will be no. I won’t kill you. I won’t.” Clark never could. No matter who it was, but especially not Lex, even when he was Luthor.

“Not unless it’s in the midst of battle and unintended,” Lex agreed softly. “It wouldn’t be you.” He rummage through the supplies and got out the water bottle, taking a long drink before passing it to Clark. “I presume you at least regret not having let me die. All those saves... catching bullets meant for me, axes, pulling me out of water that would have kept me.”

Clark kept shaking his head. “No!” He never, ever, ever would regret saving Lex. Especially not then. “The only thing...” He bit his lip, then continued. “The thing I regret most is not being a better friend.”

Lex looked at him for a long few moments, not objecting. Then he sat down on the rock again. “If it helps,” he offered, “it wouldn’t have made any difference in the long run. This would have been me and my fate, no matter what.”

That really didn’t make Clark feel any better at all. He shifted his position so he was facing Lex directly, looking up at him.

“When my mother was dying, I spent most of the time running around looking for doctors or new research that could cure her, instead of spending the time with her. The funny thing was, Mom understood. I talked to her about it, and she said she’d done the same thing when her dad was dying – too busy taking care of everything and making sure that when he came home from the hospital that all would be ready for him, never thinking he wouldn’t come home.” Lex tilted his head. “Maybe I should have paid more attention to my family history. At least I never had any kids to pass this on to, no matter how many marriages.”

“Stop picking homicidal brides and you might have had a wife long enough to have had a relationship,” Clark muttered, still annoyed about many of those.

Lex laughed. It wasn’t a Luthor laugh, it was a Lex laugh. Something Clark hadn’t heard for a long, long time.

“Why don’t you go home, Clark?” Lex suggested. “Feed the cows, do what you need to at the farm. I—” Lex looked away. “I’m not going anywhere. This is where I’ll be.”

“We don’t have any cows anymore, Lex. We sold the herd years ago.” But Clark still got up. He hadn’t known when he saw Lex driving to the caves that this would be long term. It wasn’t a bad idea to go home for a bit. He was pretty sure nothing was going to happen to Lex while he would be gone. If Lex was going to commit suicide, he wouldn’t have brought all the supplies. Or, well, at least he would leave it for later. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

\-- -- --

They were there for a week. Talking. Not talking. Just being there together. Clark popped out a few times for extreme emergencies, but otherwise was ignoring the world outside. It could take care of itself for a while. This was his time to spend with Lex, and it really was his Lex, mostly, not the Luthor he’d become. 

It was bittersweet. Clark rejoiced to have this part of his friend again, and couldn’t help the internal triumph of _”See! I was right!”_ to all those who said Luthor was all there was. But at the same time... there was no time. This was it. He had gotten him back, only to know he was losing him. 

Lex seemed to rally at the start, physically as well as mentally, regaining some of his health by being in his special cavern, though Clark still didn’t know what was so special about it. But that vitality disappeared as the days went on, and death was ever-present with them.

Towards the end, Lex slept a lot, curled up at the base of his rock, not bothering with anything more comfortable. Clark sat next to him, holding Lex’s hand and wondering at the strange turns their lives had taken. He wished they would have had this all along... but he was glad to have it now. It was something more than he’d ever thought he would have, and he was also thankful that Lex wasn’t alone. 

After those seven days, one of the walls in the cavern glowed.

At first, Clark didn’t notice, his attention on Lex, who had finally fallen asleep again after a coughing fit that had made Clark think it would be the last.

When he finally realized there was more light than there should be, he looked at the glowing stone rippling as the water fell over it, and he thought with some exasperation that things had been too normal for entirely too long. He stepped in front of Lex and waited, prepared to speed them out if they needed to.

A person stepped through the stone wall into the cavern. 

It disconcerted Clark only for a moment. He was used to high-tech teleportation and dimension rifts and other anomalies. This didn’t have the feel of technology... but then, some of the most advanced ones didn’t. 

The man who had come in paused for a moment as he looked around. The first thing that caught Clark’s attention was the hair – you couldn’t miss the hair. Fiery red extending down to his waist, and the term ‘fiery’ wasn’t just an expression. It was a deep red that also had hues of orange and yellow streaking through it, and the clear white of flames too hot. The streaks weren’t just up and down but also cross-wise and seemed to shift within his hair. It was disconcerting if one looked too long. Clark wrenched his gaze to studying the rest of him.

The stranger was tall and thin – as tall, if not a bit taller than Clark himself, and the thinness of flexible strength rather than illness. His anglo white skin was pale but healthy, the tunic he wore leaving his arms exposed. The clothes were a tunic and pants in a deep, rich green accented with white that contrasted in an aesthetic way with his hair. A belt had pouches hanging off it that somehow didn’t look as out of place as they should. Long black boots completed the outfit. It all looked very renaissance, but somehow natural as well.

While Clark was studying him, the stranger’s eyes met his. He couldn’t tell color in this light, not with the man backlit by the glowing wall. But he could see well enough to tell they narrowed at the sight of him.

“Kryptonian,” the stranger said scornfully, his voice low and melodic even with the anger that thrummed through it.

Clark’s ancestry got him in more trouble... How could even tell at a single look? “Who are you? Why are you here?” Clark went on the offensive, deflecting the statement about his origins.

The man took a couple of steps in and a little to one side, his gaze dropping low and behind Clark. He hissed in dismay. “Get away from him, Kryptonian. You will not harm him further.”

Wait... “What?” Clark figured it out a second too late and even as he moved to protect Lex... or something, he wasn’t quite sure what he was going to do, since the words had made it clear Lex wasn’t the one in danger... anyhow, he moved, and the stranger gestured, and a bright stream of light left the man’s hands and hit Clark solidly in the chest, knocking him back even as his body screamed in pain.

Magic. Clark hated magic. It was the one thing besides kryptonite that he had no defenses for at all. The only thing he could do was seek out allies who also knew magic and let kind fight kind. Or if he knew early enough in a fight that magic was present, there were a few special amulets that had been made for him, but they weren’t things that he had with him all the time, and there were enough types of magic that one size didn’t fit all. 

He got off the ground with a groan and looked towards Lex.

The stranger was there, kneeling over him.

“Leave him alone!” Even though logically Clark knew from the stranger’s words that he didn’t mean Lex harm, Clark couldn’t help his instinctive response to protect.

This time, the man gestured in a more complex pattern and the rays of light that left his palms were a dancing, intricate array that met Clark as he flew through the air and bundled him up in a nice little cage floating in the air, Clark contained within. 

Clark pressed his hands against the light, substance without form, and pushed but couldn’t get through. At least this light didn’t hurt. “Leave him alone,” Clark repeated, even though he knew he couldn’t back it up.

The stranger frowned at him, light still dancing at the tips of his fingers. The flames in his hair also appeared to dance, illusion of the... no, that was real – his hair was moving as if a breeze ruffled through it, though the air in the cavern was still.

“You were not the one to harm him?” 

At least the man didn’t try and persist in the misinformation, not clinging to his first impression. 

“He has—” Clark started to say, heart aching before he was cut off.

“He can speak for himself, thank you,” Lex said as he sat up, looking from the stranger to Clark. “Regardless of appearances and a general tendency for plowing in without regard to consequences, Clark, in this case, is blameless. I’m okay. I was simply sleeping.”

The man looked down, his eyebrows raising. “That is not ‘okay’. That is the worst case of iron poisoning I have ever seen, and I have seen some extreme instances over the centuries. It is as if it’s been eating away at you for years. The Kryponians are known for their torture of our kind with the use of their foreign metals and technology, polluting the Earthlings and driving us away.”

Iron poisoning? Clark blinked. The accusations against his kind he accepted with equanimity. But Lex had cancer, not iron poisoning... or at least not the conventional type. Clark looked at the light around him and wondered.

Lex got up carefully, his hand on the stone seat, his face alight with curiosity. He glanced at Clark again. He studied Clark for a bit, his lips raising slightly as if to say ‘not me this time’. Clark rolled his eyes in return. Lex shrugged, the movement a bare twitch of his shoulders that Clark only caught because he knew him. Lex turned back to the stranger. “This one is more Earthling than Kryptonian, raised among them, and more moral than most. Ridiculously so.”

The man hesitated for a moment, then made a gesture. The light around Clark dissolved. He floated back to ground level and then walked carefully and non-threateningly to them. He placed himself next to Lex but slightly away so he could see both of them while giving support if needed.

“Why do you seem so familiar?” Lex mused, staring at the stranger. “I have never met you before; I know this. But...”

“Blood calls to blood,” the other replied. He reached out but stopped short of touching Lex. “My sister’s line, I believe. My grand-nephew spent many long years in this land, even for our length of time. Our kind are not particularly fertile, but it’s been known to happen, with humans.”

Confirmation – this guy wasn’t human. Which meant... Clark turned to Lex. “You’re not human???”

“More so than you,” Lex automatically rebutted, the look of curiosity changing to wonder and his attention mostly still on the other. “You are... kin?”

A brilliant smile flashed across the other’s face. He bowed slightly. “I am Aeliotho. Your grand-uncle, I believe, give or take a few generations.”

“Lex Lu...” Lex paused in his introduction then started again. “Lex. I am Lex.” He held out his hand.

Aeliotho took it, holding it in both of his and stroking the skin. “You are very sick. The iron and steel has worked its way through your body in great quantities. How long has it been since you were exposed?”

Lex shrugged, a larger movement that was more obvious than before. “Since I was born. I was born in a building made of cement and metal, and raised in another, going from place to place in metal transports, using metal in everyday items. It has not been a problem until recently. I became sick a few months ago.”

At this, the other’s eyes turned wide and round. This close, Clark could see that they were a shade of blue-grey, not unlike Lex’s, though they were narrower at the corners normally. With the relationship in mind, Clark could see the resemblances between his friend... his former friend... his friend anew?... between Lex and Aeliotho. Same lean body shape, same whipcord strength. A similarity of oval faces and features upon them. Didn’t Lex have red hair when he was a kid? He was sure it hadn’t been this odd flame-hued set, but apparently he was half-human. Three quarters human. More? Non-human enough, apparently, to have been affected by worked metal, just as Lex had said didn’t belong in the cave. 

“Can you help?” Clark asked softly, needing to know. “We... there’s nothing in this world that can cure him.”

“Of course,” Aeliotho replied easily. “Iron poisoning is rare nowadays, but back when we travelled more commonly to Earth, there was an extensive healing study made of it. It cannot be done here, particularly if worked metal is that common. Lex must come to our world where the healers are.”

There was silence for several moments, both Clark and Lex taking that in.

Aeliotho coughed, in a rather universal manner of one remembering something that needs to be said. “When you come... you will not return. Not to here and now.”

Lex’s eyes narrowed and Clark stepped closer to him. “A threat?”

The man shrugged, his flame-hair shifting around him. “Reality. I have been monitoring this cavern for a long time, since the last of us came through and left this part of the world to the humans who would befriend Kryptonians. The bell has rung a few times, but always when I come there has been no one here. No one until now. You have been here for awhile?”

“A week,” Clark replied after seeing Lex wasn’t going to.”

“I came instantly when I heard. It could not have been more than a few minutes for me. Time runs at a much faster rate on this world, it always has. It is not a huge deal for us to step to your world, but for any from here to come to ours... there will be much time lost.”

They paused, taking that in.

“Thomas the Rhymer,” Lex murmured. “Taken to elfland for a year and did not return for seven.”

“He was in our land for a week,” Aeliotho said dryly. “If that is who I think it was. But yes, I believe the seven years was fairly accurate. The ratio varies, it is not always a constant. It is, however, very extreme.”

Clark blinked, then blinked again, his thoughts derailed by one simple association. “Lex... you’re an... a... you’re...”

“Oh go ahead and say it,” Lex sighed, grimacing.

“You’re an elf???”

“Half-elf, apparently.” Lex winced even as he said it.

“Lex...”

“Don’t go there,” Lex warned. “Don’t even go there.”

Clark bit his lip, caught between hysteria and disbelief. He wasn’t sure what he’d been about to say, or what Lex thought he’d been going to say, but it probably was better to not think about it.

“How long...?” Clark turned his thoughts to the other problem.

“Given that we will have to travel to the healer, and then the time she might need to cure my nephew... if we return straight-away, perhaps a hundred Earth years. If we talk, and introduce Lex to his other relatives, and he meets my sister... two hundred or more.”

Clark closed his eyes. “Can I come?” He knew, even as he asked it, that it wasn’t possible. He had people here that he cared about and couldn’t leave like that. His mom, Chloe, Lois... the list stretched out longer than the single name of Lex, even a Lex without the Luthor. It hadn’t escaped his notice that Lex had cut that part off when given the choice of a new introduction.

While Lex looked at him in surprise and a little disbelief, Aeliotho shook his head. “My world would not be welcoming to a Kryptonian, even one raised by humans. It is not just my people either, but my land itself. Your kind and ours, we do not mix well.”

“But have you tried?” Lex asked softly, then he also shook his head. “You have family still, Clark.”

“But I won’t in fifty years from now,” Clark replied, thinking of the image from holding Cassandra’s hand, of the graves all around of everybody he loved. Everybody but Lex. He swallowed. “I know. I know I can’t come. Not really. And you have to go.”

“I _want_ to go,” Lex corrected. “This... this is what I have felt and wanted all along from this cavern. I know this now.” 

A mystery, something to be explored, something to be found. A family on the other side, who wanted and would welcome him. Clark smiled, seeing something of his old friend rekindling even as he watched. “Be well, Lex,” he said, his voice low with all the emotions within him.

Lex hesitated for a long moment, then he took the step closer to Clark, reaching his hand up to touch Clark’s face. They stood like that for some time, thinking of impossible dreams.

“I am sorry for all I have done,” Lex spoke seriously as he watched Clark, his fingers light upon his skin. “It doesn’t make up for it, I know. But for what it’s worth...”

Clark reached his hand up to cover Lex’s and hold it there. “It’s worth a lot.” It was, too. He’d never had those words from Luthor. With the light streaming in from the other world, Lex was already looking better and healthier. Iron sick, for his whole life. Fevered and it only getting worse. Not everybody nearly destroyed the world in their pain, but Lex had always been different.

“I’ll come back,” Clark promised. “If I’m still around in a hundred years. I’ll come back and wait for you.”

“Don’t wait too long,” Lex said with a grin. “Leave a note.” He sobered. “I’ll want to spend some time there, so take the 200 or 300 instead. But after that... I’ll check. I’ll come back and see if you... I’ll come back.”

If Clark was still alive, after all that time. He pretty much knew by now that the yellow sun meant he wasn’t going to die a natural death, but there were plenty of unnatural things that he contested often enough. At least now he had something to look forward to. The future had always been bleak for him. Now... now he could think of something beyond.

Greatly daring, Clark leaned forward. Lex stretched to meet him and they kissed. A first kiss. A last kiss. A kiss they’d never shared when they were younger. Something to hold for the future. 

Sometimes one could tell by a kiss if things were going to work or not, if it was love or friendship. This kiss with Lex was more than either. It was dreams long deferred, and berries and cream, and coming home, and sunsets and sunrises all wrapped up together. It was something Clark wanted more of, something he couldn’t have right now. He would have it now, while he and Lex could.

Eventually, they stepped back and away, only connecting through their eyes.

“Thank you for helping him, Aeliotho,” Clark turned to the elf, mentally wincing even as he put the label on. He’d seen stranger things, really.

The elf took his hand in both of his. His skin felt cool to the touch. “Perhaps your kind and mine can coexist after all,” he said with a smile. “Thank you for being with my nephew here in this world.”

Clark winced, physically this time, and glanced at Lex, but neither of them corrected the elf.

There was nothing else really left. Lex had expected to die and had sorted out his affairs before he came to the caverns. He _had_ been dying and there was no possibility of staying here. And Clark couldn’t go, wouldn’t go. Was glad he didn’t have to make that choice in the end.

A last look, and then they were through the shimmering cavern wall. The light along the wall faded. And Clark was left alone. 

He sat down on the rock chair and stared at the wall, listening to the dripping of the water in the cavern and the faint sounds of the bats somewhere deeper in the system. Eventually, he’d have to go back to the real world. But it wouldn’t hurt to stay here for awhile. Just a little longer.

\-- -- -- -- -- -- --

Three hundred years later.

\-- -- -- -- -- -- --

Lex raised his hand to his aunt and uncle and then turned to the portal. He felt better than he ever had, and he knew now just how sick he’d been, not only at the end, but also for his whole life. Eaten away, and lashing out in his fever madness. He sorrowed to think of how he’d been. There was a chance, though, to make at least one thing right that had waited half his lifetime. On the other side, had been waiting longer. 

Maybe. Hopefully.

Every moment he delayed was that much longer for Clark. Lex stepped through.

He laughed.

The cavern had apparently been turned into one giant notebook. There was old, old paper lying in heaps all around, and what looked like plastic sheets piled on top of it. There was even a banner across the back reading “Welcome home, Lex” though it looked like it had been there for a very long time.

“Well, I did tell him to leave me a note.” Lex strolled over to the rock chair and picked up the single sheet lying there. It was one of the newer, plastic ones, with black writing that was fairly close but not quite exactly like the English he’d known. He murmured a quick translation spell that his uncle had taught him that was apparently common-place when stepping across the worlds.

_2342 – Yes, still here, though the times get long and strange compared to when we were young. I’ve left a date clock and a caller outside the cavern beyond the range of influence. Hope you’re better. I’m repeating myself. It’s the same note I leave every few years. But it’s new to you. Hopefully. Maybe this time. It’s been so long. But I still dream. I hope that it hadn’t been a dream, there at the end. Anyhow. If you want. If you’re there. I’m here. C._

Lex closed his eyes. Over three hundred years. What must it have been like, for Clark? Living through that? A very long time, long life span or not. Almost, Lex regretted the conversations he’d had, the teachings he’d learned, the time he’d spent. But he didn’t fully regret them because he was here now and was so much more than he’d ever been.

He gestured and the portal closed. It would open again when he came back. Lifting his hand, Lex called for light and shaped it into a ball that he tossed upward, instructing it silently to stay above and slightly ahead of him. 

Retracing steps, Lex walked through the cavern and the caves. It hadn’t been so long ago for him and yet the memory still felt muffled, dreamlike, though for him it had been more nightmare like. Dying but with more clarity than he’d felt in years. And somehow with Clark by his side. Superman, his foe. Clark, his former friend. Staying by his side and showing mercy that was a part of Superman and yet such a mystery to how anybody could be like that. By all rights, Superman should have hated him, and so often did while they were fighting. But at the end, Clark had come to be by his side. All the years between had dropped away and Clark was his friend again. How did Clark do it? Lex had never understood, and still didn’t. 

He just knew he was thankful for it.

When Lex stepped past the boundaries of his people’s spells, he felt it instantly. The spells had been laid down for protection on this portal location, keeping it clear of Kryptonian influence, and human influence as well, in the latter years. The worked metals that deflected the paths of life and the technology that disrupted. The technology, in and of itself, wasn’t a problem. The metals were. In their natural state, they were another part of the world, ores of the earth, as precious as the gems and other beautiful rocks and minerals. Wrought metal, however, was another issue.

Lex didn’t quite understand why, and his cousins had been unable to explain it fully. Mostly because they didn’t care – they just knew it was like that and so had retreated once they found it to be so, rather than trying to figure it out. Lex was determined, however, not to simply leave it at that. He was a scientist, even if such had taken other paths in the other world, and he wanted to know. He also quite _liked_ technology and didn’t really want to leave it behind, even if it had been exchanged for other wonders in the other world.

There were two items sitting there. One was something like a pocket watch and the other was something like a phone. Both were different, yet still recognizable. Lex wondered if that was because of the technology itself, or if Clark had deliberately picked things that would be similar to what Lex had known.

Checking the watch, the year was 2344, so a few years past the last note. Well, Clark probably wouldn’t be coming over every day, not after 300 years. Lex decided to hold off on the call until he got outside. He wanted to see the outside.

The outer caves were better than he’d expected. His relatives had warned him of pain and a loss of clarity the longer he spent outside the spells and in the human world. He didn’t feel that as he walked along the tunnels, though. Perhaps it was because he was half-human, or mostly human, though his kin-folk had discounted that when they welcomed him in. He had also taken precautions when he left to buffer himself against the perils of the world.

He passed the key cave and paused to look inside. His light ball guttered at the entrance, flickering in distress, and it was obvious that the Kryptonian technology and the Elven magic were not compatible. In the old days, the Kryptonians had won, even with their partial presence upon the world. Lex suspected it was less due to direct conflict than his people’s tendency to retreat and wait things out. Considering the time differential, the rational made sense, even if he instinctively scorned it. 

The route from this point on had been reinforced a few times. Actually, it looked like it had collapsed and been dug out again. Clark, probably, keeping the way open for Lex. 300 years... and even with that last kiss, there had been so much hatred before. How did Clark know that Lex would come back? And would come back sane and healed? His hope was eternal, it seemed.

Outside, finally. Lex paused to take a deep breath. Earth. He was on Earth again. Elfland was all well and good, but it wasn’t home. He hadn’t been there nearly long enough for it to be that.

It was late afternoon outside, the sun hanging low in the sky. Still golden, still shining, still there. Fluffy white clouds in the sky. Green things growing all around. Grass and flowers – it must be spring time as well. There was no sign of any habitation or civilization immediately in sight. Lex dispelled his light ball, not needing it anymore.

In the old days, Lex had left the cave system lands to Clark in his will. Even without a body, they had to have declared him dead after awhile, his things dispersed. Lex was thankful that he’d written it that way. He’d considered leaving the caves to one of the archeological societies, or even one of the fringe groups that believed in extra-terrestrials. But in the end, that section had remained as it always had, ever since he’d originally bought them, after wrestling them back from his dad. In Clark’s hands, they were taken care of, as he’d known they’d be. 

It had been long enough. Lex lifted the phone and figured it out enough to ‘call’ the ‘number’ programmed into it.

“Greetings,” came a familiar voice on the other end, if an unfamiliar greeting.

“Hi,” Lex replied. “Have you waited long enough?”

There was a pause. “Lex?” 

Before Lex could answer, there was a click, then a familiar wooshing sound.

Lex lowered the phone and looked at Clark, who looked back at him.

Physically, Clark wasn’t any older. His face was the same, though with an unusual expression of hope. No, it was a fairly familiar expression, if one remembered the teenage years. His hair the same dark brown, if a little longer and styled differently. Clothing was as different as you’d expect 300 years of styling changes to be, but Lex suspected that Clark wore it as casually as he ever did. No glasses, just rich green eyes staring at him.

“Clark,” Lex smiled as he spoke his friend’s name. It was real. This was really happening.

Clark blinked. “Nobody has called me that for... well, I guess for three hundred years. Lex, it’s really you?”

Lex was glad he’d used the translation spell. The language might seem to be English, but it was a very different one then he’d spoken originally. “It’s me.” The spell would work both ways, and Clark should be able to understand him as they had both understood Aeliotho. “Sorry it took so long.”

“You’re really back,” Clark whispered, his heart in his voice and his eyes.

Then Lex was crushed inside a hug that was the mother of all hugs. It was a hug like he’d not had since years and years ago, since Clark had been a teenager and enveloping Lex with all he was. Lex couldn’t even begin to describe it now. Instead he put his arms around a memory that was reality and held on the best he could, tossed about in the seas of sensation and feeling. 

When Clark pulled back, finally, the sun had lit the clouds in dazzling shades of gold, a homecoming welcome.

They didn’t speak, but both leaned in again.

The kiss that Lex had had so briefly in the cavern was a bare prelude to this kiss. 

He’d hoped. 300 years was a very long time, and he had tried to tell himself that Clark wouldn’t wait his heart for Lex alone. But he’d still hoped. And now, here it was.

Raising up on his toes, Lex took a firm grip on the back of Clark’s head and put all that he was into the kiss.

The future held so much more for them, but for now, this is what they wanted the most.

* * *

END

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> All other [Clexmas gifts](http://clexmas.livejournal.com/118477.html) posted on LJ (some cross-posted to AO3, but not all).


End file.
